Too Many Girls offers the viewer and opportunity to see George Abbott direct one of his own hits from Broadway for the big screen. If the film does have a problem is that Abbott did it too much like a photographed stage play. When Abbott got to recreate Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game for the screen he didn't make that mistake with them. This film plays a whole lot like early musicals such as Rio Rita, The Desert Song, Animal Crackers, and Cocoanuts.
On Broadway Too Many Girls ran for 249 performances and coming over from the Broadway production were Eddie Bracken and Desi Arnaz. Playing the leads here are Richard Carlson and Lucille Ball and yes, Lucy and Desi did meet on the set of this film.
It's a college musical and in plot and location Too Many Girls plays a lot like the Gershwin Brothers, Girl Crazy. This time it's the woman who is the wild child who goes to the rustic university, in this case it's Pottawatomie College in Stopgap, New Mexico. Lucille Ball plays the Paris Hilton type and she kind of surprises her father Harry Shannon when she says she wants to attend his alma mater. Of course it's a ruse so she can be near her latest flame, Broadway playwright Douglas Walton who has a ranch there.
But Shannon is up to her tricks and hires four All-American football players to transfer there and act as bodyguards, the four being Carlson, Arnaz, Bracken, and Hal LeRoy. It takes a great deal of suspension of disbelief to see Bracken and LeRoy as football players.
Also on hand are Frances Langford and Ann Miller who contribute their talents to the film. I also don't understand why with a singer like Langford around she wasn't given the lead. Lucy's voice is dubbed by Forties radio singer Trudy Erwin who was a vocalist for a spell on Bing Crosby's radio show.
And Ball/Erwin get to do the two main numbers in the film. Most of the score from Too Many Girls came over from Broadway and Rodgers&Hart wrote You're Nearer in addition for this film. You're Nearer and the show's big hit from Broadway I Didn't Know What Time It Was which is a favorite song from Rodgers&Hart for me. Patti Page did a great record of it.
Too Many Girls could have had a better screen adaption, but it still remains a gem from what was the height of the collaboration of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
